February 20, 2014

"Whatever hour God has blessed you with, take it with grateful hand, nor postpone your joys from year to year, so that in whatever place you have been, you may say that you have lived happily." - Roman Philosopher, Horace

This past Sunday, a sweet neighbor of ours got up in church and spoke about finding joy in our present circumstances and staying positive a midst the trials that come in our lives. So many of the things she shared really stuck with me and have been on my mind ever since. These past few days I have found myself refocusing my attention on the little things that make me happy in my every day life. Some are big and some are small. Some remain constant each day while others change. But they all make my day brighter and so that is what I'm choosing to focus on. The happy in my life because there is SO much of it!

That is also where this little idea of a happy list came from. Just a list of things I want to share with you that are making me happy in hopes that I will always do my best to remain positive and focus on the abundant blessings in my life every day.

Here are just a few things on my happy list right now...

1. Snow! We've seen very little this Winter and it was surprisingly fun shoveling a snow covered driveway for the first time at our new home a couple weeks ago. It also gave me a chance to finally wear my new Sorrel snow boots that I got from Nic for Christmas. Win, win!

2. This navy and white herringbone patterned shower curtain! I've had my eye on it for some time now and finally purchased it right after Christmas on a sale for our new master bathroom. I absolutely adore it, it makes me smile every time I walk in our bathroom. :) I am almost done putting the finishing touches on the space and then I will share pictures.

3. Record day at school tomorrow and the time I am given to refocus my attention on the things I am behind on. I LOVE teaching but there is this endless list of other things that I didn't really consider that take up so much time and are easy to get behind on (i.e. grading, organizing, and the endless paperwork that comes with the job). So it is nice that I am given a day every 6 weeks to catch up on those things. My OCD heart feels happier when everything is organized. haha

5. The new Waterlogue app. Have you tried it yet?! I am seriously obsessed. It transforms your pictures into beautiful water color paintings. I really want to have one printed on a canvas for our new home.

February 19, 2014

I love Valentine's Day. I always have. Even before I had a romantic someone to celebrate it with. Growing up, my mom used to give us treats and a new movie on Valentine's morning. It has always felt like a special day out of the year to think about the people I love in my life.

If I'm being honest, I like to stretch out holidays as looonnnnngggggg as possible so we made a whole holiday weekend of it. ;) What made it even better, was that it was a 3 day weekend together and those are few and far between with Nic's busy work schedule.

I spent Valentine's day with my 25 little Valentines at school. We played bingo and I laughed as they made disgusted faces with every lovey dovey clue they were given. haha I had SO much fun deciding on the Valentines that I made for them and putting them together. Kool Aide for my "Kool" kids! I brought a big bag of sugar and we had a grand old time trying not to make a huge mess all over my classroom sink and counter tops. No they did not get stained bright red!! ;) I live for this stuff!

The love of my life had the most beautiful bouquet of flowers delivered to my classroom. He sure knows how to make a girl feel something special. He will probably kill me for sharing this but he bought the vase and put the arrangement together himself. Amazing right?! He is always surprising me and I love that about him. I told him that apparently we needed to open a floral shop together. ;) Maybe a retirement endeavor someday!

Later that evening, we had a romantic night in complete with a home cooked dinner by candle light, one of my favorite chick flick movies{Safe Haven}, and the perfect excuse to use our fondue pot to have chocolate covered strawberries for dessert.

On Saturday morning, we had breakfast in bed {cinnamon rolls}. We also saw the movie, Delivery Man, that evening. So funny! I hope you had a special day, or weekend if you like to carry on the celebrating for as long as humanely possible like us, with the ones you love.